our successes...don't forget them!

One of the things that we noticed during our last faculty collaboration meeting of the quarter was that we are intolerant of talking about our successes. We will spend hours on "problem solving" but after 10 minutes of reviewing what "went right," we were saying, "Okay, what is the point of this meeting?  Why are we talking about this?"


I also noticed my tendency to document my complaints, and not the celebrations. 


Here is a record of some of both. 


SUSTAIN Winter 2012 After Action Review

The good news/success of what we captured this quarter

We taught something about how to learn—“it’s as if they’ve been remediated about something that happened them to earlier in their learning: you can see it in their affect, in their engagement, in their energy level, in the way they relate to each other.”

We’ve created a community that is on the edge of self-awareness—so they can act things on their own and in their own behalf

Relationships really have happened for students: they socialize with each other; they are using their relationships to learn with; their self-presentation with faculty is considerably different and more relaxed. Students taught each other.

We saw indications that students’ desire to learn and integrate the subject matter into their lives

Students report feeling safe and faculty report seeing implications for student learning/awakeness/investment

A place has been made for introverted students to show contribution and investment

Students are connected to projects and the people without external motivation.

The quality of courage of the faculty seems high—Roger notes this in relationship to the teams he’s worked with in the past.

It’s clear that faculty need a feedback loop and so can enact their own courage more completely.

Student self-organized to collaborate.

Just because we didn’t see [have access to] learning happening during the quarter (Linda’s story) didn’t mean it wasn’t happening. By the end of the quarter, it appeared—surprisingly to us.

We recognize that we are using a feminine model—nurturing, community-based, relational.

We see into each other’s classes in a way that has not happened for us as faculty before.  We’ve accomplished transparency and vulnerability at a few different levels that allows for collaboration.

As  a group we are shifting our conversation from linear, problem-solving to something that is more collaborative and playful.

Writing students have shown success in actually trying to say something and so.

Our commitments of attention for the coming quarter’s design

How can we further help students to experience integration across their coursework and their projects?

How do we honor the whole more completely?

[How can we come back around to pete’s experience to reflect/debrief his physical illness and whether it has connection to our group’s work?]

Initial plans

We’ll cross-attend each other’s classes

Then once a month we’ll attend one another’s classes